Biagio Mastroianni
ARTIST STATEMENT
English:
I am an illustrator, painter, and Fine-Art printmaker
who portrays society and modern events through painting.
I work in London and Lucerne, Switzerland.
My aim is to showcase my sociopolitical and poetic works,
even in a futuristic context. I draw inspiration from literature,
my research from various sources, and also from my travels
to other places and countries.
If you create a work of art today, you can apply it tomorrow.
Italiano:
Sono un illustratore, pittore e printmaker Fine-Art che
ritrae tramite la pittura la società e gli avvenimenti moderni.
Lavoro a Londra e a Lucerna, Svizzera.
Il mio fine e di mostrare le mie opere sociopolitiche
e poetiche anche in un contesto futuristico. Prendo
spunto dalla letteratura, dalle mie ricerche da diverse
fontie mi ispiro anche dai miei viaggi in ltri luoghi e paesi.
Se oggi crei un’opera d’arte, potrai applicarla domani
PROJECT STATEMENT
English:
The Awesome and the Abyss
At the 2024 San Remo Festival of Italian Song, ‘Geolier’, the pseudonym of Emanuele Palumbo,
a young musician from Scampia, an area near Naples known for social decay, climbed the podium,
finishing second. He grew up in Milan in the Gescal district. The Neapolitan rapper has stirred
much controversy, including accusations of racism, in public opinion. In a chaotic world of growing
poverty and decay, there is still hope to bring value and be an inspiration to others.
The faces, expressions, and gestures of the characters, the skyscrapers, and that bit of greenery,
I have connected them in a vortex with a central figure: a muse.
I painted three large-format oil and acrylic canvases. Great people have achieved great tangible
goals, despite unfavorable conditions and numerous failures accumulated along their journey.
Some are expelled from schools and academies (Albert Einstein and many others).
Italiano:
La Bellezza e l’Abisso
Al Festival di San Remo della Canzone italiana 2024 è salito sul podio classificandosi
secondo ‘Geolier’, pseudonimo di Emanuele Palumbo, un giovane musicista di Scampia,
una zona vicino Napoli, nota per il degrado sociale. Cresce a Milano nel rione Gescal.
Il rapper napoletano ha suscitato molte polemiche, anche di razzismo, nell’opinione
pubblica. In un mondo caotico, di povertà crescente e di degrado, c’è ancora speranza
per regalare valore ed essere d’ispirazione per il prossimo.
I volti, le mimiche e i gesti dei personaggi, i grattacieli e quel po’ di verde li ho connessi
in un vortice con una figura centrale: una musa ispiratrice. Ho dipinto tre quadri a olio e
acrilico su tela in formato grande. Grandissime persone hanno raggiunto grandissimi
obbiettivi tangibili, nonostante le condizioni sfavorevoli e i moltissimi fallimenti
collezionati sul loro cammino. Alcuni vengono espulsi dalle scuole e dalle accademie
(Albert Einstein e molti altri).
“Art of Being Alone: The Memorable Moments of My Life”
Despite the global pandemic and uncertainty
Transformation- A social-political value
Lockdown Tins
This is the world in our present time: leading by greed, avidity, horniness, glamour, fighting spirit and adoration of false myth and folk’s tale. The figurative expressive grimaces with anger, rage, disbelief, scepticism, admiration and hate, characterized by hard, fixed gaze and it accompanies combative gesture. Orange and red are the dominant colours. This highly pessimistic interpretation of our present time of a big city, stressing the alienation of man as he plunges headlong towards self-destruction.
From the acrylic and oil paintings on carboard and canvas, the transformation of the city from a pessimistic vision in to a more optimistic perspective: “Lockdown Tins”: Well-being, freedom, dreams, poetry and pleasure find expression in smiling, serenity and tranquillity on primed tins of beans, chopped tomatoes, lentils, chickpeas, peas, tuna, artichokes and so on. Day by day the paintings and drawings on tins were created and numerated gradually: Day one, day two, week one and so on. One more reason why I created my “Lockdown Tins” was, that the Art shops during Lockdown were closed. I purchased canned food because of necessity during the pandemic Lockdown and it evolved my Art Installation to a social-political value Art Installation.